GRUB2 by default makes no direct access to hardware but goes through BIOS. So any such bug is clearly a BIOS one. GRUB triggers this bug by some legitimate action which causes your BIOS to go nuts. Can you retry with grub-install --disk-module=ata ?

Please look for updates BIOS or Firmware for your device. GRUB legacy and GRUB 2 uses primarliy BIOS to access devices. On GRUB 2 you can also try to use ata.mod instead of biosdisk.mod. This will cause GRUB 2 communicate directly with ATA controller.

I have the same problem. I also have a Lenovo Ideapad Y710 with Optiarc DVD+/-R/RW drive. Whenever Grub is installed, renders my drive unusable in all installed operating systems. Also, same as the creator of this bug, my hdd led stays turned on until dvd drive opened and closed. This problem is not common to Ideapad's. I have read on numerous sites where people have exactly the same problem with different hardware. Please fix this asap.

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 with an Optiarc DVD+/-R/RW drive, and using GRUB (both GRUB2 and legacy, for what it's worth) does something to the drive that makes renders it inoperable. Booting Ubuntu 8.04.1 using GRUB2 makes it so that there is not even a device entry for the drive, and nothing will automount either (CD or DVD). There has been quite a lot of discussion about this in some of the forums (Debian and Ubuntu), and it happens with other vendors' drives as well (Nec comes to mind, and there have been others in the discussions).

The drive does work - I can boot from it using any of the live CDs, and it works when I boot directly into Vista by changing the boot order for the hard drives (I have two).

One other symptom is that using GRUB to boot the PC causes the drive activity light to stay on constantly until I open the DVD drive; the light then works normally, but the DVD drive never does.